Until relatively recently, people were afforded a large degree of anonymity when communicating using telephones. It used to be that a caller who used an “old fashioned” telephone that had no display screen, dialed a telephone number to place a call over a public access switch network, and the receiving party used a similar telephone to answer the call. Using this prior art technology, unless the caller identified himself after the connection was made, the receiving party had no immediate way of knowing who was calling.
Telephones have became increasingly sophisticated and commonly include a display that, when configured with a service to display a caller's telephone number (known in the art as “Caller ID”), is capable of displaying the telephone number of a caller, even prior to the receiving party answering the call. A party with residential telephone service who does not wish to accept a call from a particular number, therefore, can simply glance at the display on his telephone to learn the caller's telephone number, and avoid answering the call.
Moreover, even if a receiver does not have a telephone equipped with a display, the receiver can still have determine the identity of the caller, for example, via services such as “*57 Call Trace,” *69 Last Call Return,” “Anonymous Call Rejection” and “Detailed Billing.”
Caller ID service does not, however, ensure that parties who accept telephone calls know who the person is on the other end of the call. A person may use someone else's telephone to place a telephone call, and the receiver may answer under the belief that the person placing the call is actually the person who owns the telephone. In such case, as in the past, unless the caller announces himself, the receiving party cannot be certain who is placing a telephone call. Once the person speaks, however, his voice may be recognized and his identity revealed.
Telephone services, particularly Caller ID service, is more complicated and less reliable in the context of business telephone service. Many businesses, for example, use a private branch exchange (“PBX”) that is a private telephone network in which a number of telephone lines are connected to a public switched telephone network. A PBX manages telephone communications for a plurality of telephones, including to enable telephones on the private network to make calls outside of the network. A PBX is cost-effective because far fewer public telephone lines are required than actual telephone units.
Typically in a business environment, when an employee places a call that is destined for a receiver outside of the private network, referred to herein as an “outside call,” the recipient's telephone, if configured with Caller ID and a display, shows the telephone number that is provided by the business's private telephone network, such as managed by a PBX. Since the PBX manages the call, the telephone number that appears on the receiver's telephone display may be the private network telephone number of the user, and not the “actual” telephone number relating to a respective telephone line in the business. Thus, the telephone number appearing on the receiver's Caller ID display is not accurate.
The ability to manage the display of a telephone number on a Caller ID display is limited to those with access expensive technology, such as PBX. Without access to a private telephone network, a caller does not have the ability to control the number that appears on the receiver's Caller ID display.